Formation Cannot Be Reduced to a Character Score

A Bible college may examine what a learner knows and observe what a learner does. The most difficult question is what it means to assess who that learner is becoming.

Competency-Based Theological Education (CBTE) rightly insists that ministry formation integrates knowing, being and doing. In Kenya, this theological model must remain distinct from general occupational Competency-Based Education and Training, or CBET. Ministry includes demonstrable practices, but it cannot be reduced to an occupational task list.

The common good requires two commitments at once. Bible colleges must take spiritual and character formation seriously, because knowledge and public performance can coexist with manipulation, dishonesty or unsafe ministry. They must also protect learners from impressionistic judgement, cultural prejudice, coerced disclosure and the unchecked power of one assessor.

The question is therefore not whether formation should be assessed. It is how a Christian learning community can gather credible evidence while confessing that no rubric measures grace, no mentor sees the whole person and no score can certify the work of the Holy Spirit.

Sandage and colleagues’ overview draws on earlier research by Jo Ann Deasy involving 130 ATS schools. In that survey, 96 per cent reported formation-related learning goals and 59 per cent a formal definition of personal and spiritual formation. Seventy-three per cent used an in-house assessment; about half of that subgroup relied on it alone. The final…